HB2509

THE CONTEXT: Statute requires the Director of the Department of Health Services (DHS) to adopt rules to provide for the oversight of food and drinks sold at the retail level, including minimum standards for related facilities and necessary measures for producing, processing, labeling, storing, handling, serving and transporting food products. However, cottage food products that are prepared in a home kitchen are exempt from these requirements and may be offered for commercial sale if the products are not potentially hazardous and do not require time or temperature controls for food safety.

WHAT THE BILL DID: The final vetoed version would expand the food products that meet the cottage food product exemption to those that are potentially hazardous or require time or temperature control for safety if they are exempt under federal regulations, allow the sale of the following as cottage food products if they meet the requirements under federal regulations: a) poultry, poultry byproducts or poultry food products if the producer raised the poultry pursuant to the 1,000 bird exemption; and b) poultry, poultry byproducts, poultry food products and meat, meat byproducts and meat food products if they are from an inspected source, and specifies that alcoholic beverages, foods that contain alcoholic beverages, unpasteurized milk, fish and shellfish products, meat, meat byproducts, poultry and poultry byproducts do not meet the definition of cottage food product unless their sale is allowed by federal law, as specified above.

WHY IT MATTERED: The practical reason for this bill was to turn the Legislature's standard for food preparation into an enforceable rule. It would expand the food products that meet the cottage food product exemption to those that are potentially hazardous or require time or temperature control for safety if they are exempt under federal regulations, and would also allow the sale of the following as cottage food products if they meet the requirements under federal regulations: a) poultry, poultry byproducts or poultry food products if the producer raised the poultry pursuant to the 1,000 bird exemption; and b) poultry, poultry byproducts, poultry food products and meat, meat byproducts and meat food products if they are from an inspected source, rather than leave the current rule unchanged.